The invention disclosed herein relates generally to inserter systems which prepares documents for insertion into envelopes and, more particularly, to matched mailing systems for matching mailing envelopes and inserts.
Systems have been developed for matched mailing. Matched mailing as defined herein means that items to be inserted into an envelope are matched with a particular envelope or with other documents. These matched mailings are used, for example, where a particular insert such as a letter is to be inserted into an opaque envelope (that is where the inserted letter does not serve as the address bearing document which is visible through a windowed portion of the envelope).
Inserts that are assembled to the collation at the insert feeder modules can be a generic inserts or specific inserts. The generic insert (advertisements, notices, business return envelopes, etc.) are of a general type that are not specifically directed to any particular addressee. Therefore, generic inserts serve each addressee equally well. On the other hand, specific inserts (canceled checks, invoice statements, etc.) contain unique information that is directed to a particular addressee. This is commonly referred to in the industry as matched mailing. In this case, specific inserts are only meaningful for the appropriate addressee and thus must be matched to each addressee.
In matched mail applications, a high degree of synchronization is typically incorporated into the inserter system to achieve proper operation. Such inserter systems have proven generally effective in producing large numbers of matched mailings. However, they have suffered from the disadvantage of a rigid and inflexible control system that does not recover well from events which occur that disturb the synchronization between the control document collation and the enclosure feeder modules.
One type of event that can disturb the synchronization is a jam. If a jam occurs, then the inserter system shuts down and operator intervention is required to correct the jam by removing the jammed collation. However, clearing of the jam could result in every control document following the jam being out of synchronization with the inserts.
In order to address this problem, current practice is to have the operator manually resynchronize the control documents with the enclosures. To accomplish this, the operator must use the jammed collation, which has been removed, to determine how many enclosures from each enclosure feeder module correspond to the jammed collation. This can be difficult since the control code that contains this information is in machine readable format and not human readable format. Once the operator determines this information, the operator manually removes the correct number of inserters from each insert feeder. Although this procedure will resynchronize the inserter system, it is time consuming, requires a highly skilled operator and is susceptible to human error.
In addition to synchronization difficulties described above, typical mail matching systems are capable of matching the contents of a mailing with the address printed on the envelope. To perform this matching a software program such as, for example, MS WORD produces a mail merge and prints through a proprietary driver and sends a data stream to the mail matching system. Information such as information directing printing of the envelope, addition of inserts, and configuration of the mailpiece is embedded in the data stream and is extracted by proprietary firmware that is part of the mail matching system. While the system works well, the design is expensive especially when dealing with technology changes. The data stream relies on a host PC to extract the address information from documents. Thus, the host application is coupled to the mail matching system and requires proprietary drivers.
Thus, one of the problems of the prior art is that a system is not available which can provide mail matching with simplified synchronization and recovery. Another problem of the prior art is that a system is not readily available which does not require proprietary drivers. Therefore, a matched mailing systems for matching mailing envelopes and inserts is needed which provides decoupling of a host application from the mail matching system.
This invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a system for preparing matched mailings. The system scans addressee data from documents that are to be inserted and sends the scanned addressee data to the envelope printer for printing on an appropriate mailpiece after the documents have been inserted. The system provides for decoupling of a host application from the mail matching system.
In one embodiment the present invention comprises an apparatus for preparing a matched mailing, the apparatus comprising: an input means for feeding a document downstream to a scanner station; a scanner for scanning the document to obtain information, the scanner providing the information to a controller; an printer for printing information obtained from the controller onto the envelope, whereby the information obtained from the controller comprises information obtained by the scanner and corresponding to the document matched to the envelope.
In another embodiment the present invention comprises a method for preparing a matched mailing, the method comprising the steps of: a) inputting a document into a mailing system; b) feeding the document downstream to a scanner station; c) scanning the document to obtain information; d) providing the information obtain by scanning to a controller; e) printing information from the controller onto the envelope, whereby the information obtained from the controller comprises information obtained by scanning and corresponding to the document matched to the envelope.
An advantage of the method of the present invention is that it decreases the need for time consuming re-synchronization after a jam. Other advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification. The aforementioned advantages are illustrative of the advantages of the various embodiments of the present invention.